Thanks u_rebelscum for the help. But now there's more questions and trouble :-/. This message is going to be long
That's what I get for writing a long answer in the first place.
Just be prepared for a longer answer message.
[This is true for standard mame(w). The windows OS combines all mouse inputs into one "system mouse", and mame can only see that one mouse.]
Is this for all OS?
Yes, for all windows OS, and standard mame. (I'm not an expert on Unix or other OSs)
Anyway, all windows OSs, and I bet most other OSs too, there is a "system mouse" that is the combination of all mouse-type devices. This makes sense in most cases; this way, all mice can control the mouse pointer on the screen in any application without the application needing to have special code to handle more than one mouse.
Dos (not through a dos box in windows, though) can have the mice separate with the optimouse driver and a normal dos mouse drive, or some other drivers (some old dos logitech drivers used to). With the mice separate, however, each application needs to have special code to handle the extra mice. Dos mame has that special code.
Win98 & WinME, with directX 8 and USB mice, can let applications see each USB mouse separately (if you have special code), as well as the "system mouse" (no special needed). Mame:Analog+ has that "special" code, but can see the "system mouse" inaddition to each USB mouse.
I hope this answers what you're asking.
I'm going to use win98, the trackballs are kidsball which are serial as well. Is there any point to having the optipac
Not for the two trackballs.
You might want it for the optical rotaries and spinners (but I don't have an optipac so this might be wrong). The happs optical rotaries just put out raw data, and the optipac translates the data from the rotary to serial data that the computer can read. If the spinners are already in a PC compatible format (serial, ps/2 or USB) they might not need the optipac either, but if the data is "raw" like the rotaries use the optipac.
[2. If one rotary is on the X-axis, the other on the Y-axis, Analog+ can map one to player one and the other to player two. I think optipac has a setting where you can do this. Also, EMU+ used to have a similar feature]
so this only works for 2 spinners or 2 rotarys or 1 trackball.
... do to the one system mouse of windows, yyyyes (if I understand the question).
Let me see if I understand you correctly. Assuming: one optipac, win98, and mame:Analog+ (windows); not all opticals are on the same cp (like your suggested layout earier); you have some swap connetion for when you change cps, and the rotaries are on the same port # (one X, one Y) and the spinners on one port #.
Now:
1. Since optipac is serial, all inputs from it will be grouped together by windows, so you need either EMU+ or analog+ to map the Y axis to player2.
2. Since optipac is serial and the trackballs are serial, windows will effectively limit you to using one trackball at a time whether they goes through optipac or not.
3. So, yes, you are limited to using only 2 rotaries, or 2 spinners, or one trackball at a time with this setup.
I guess I would be better to hook the rotarys and spinners to the optipac and the trackballs be USB connections
I got this off the ultimarc site...
Now I'm really confused . OK 2 rotarys (on cp1) and 2 spinners (on cp2) connected to optipac using the x/y-axis split to allow two players. Now the kidsball connect to the serial - is there a serial to usb connector and would this work (using analog+).
Please help
Ahhh, I have seen a comple different serial to USB adapters, and they should work with analog+. Which raises a new option that you might like: get two, three or four of these adapters, one for each trackball, and zero, one or two for the optipac. (this can run pretty high, the adapters I saw were ~$50, IIRC).
With four adapters, Mame:Analog+ will see the trackballs and the optipac serial ports all as separate inputs. You need to map which device is used by which player, but no need for splitting X/Y axes.
With three adapters, Mame:Analog+ will see the trackballs separate from each other and from the optipac. Then the optipac data can be axis split for mapping them to players 1 & 2, and you should make sure the trackballs are goin to the correct players.
With two adapters, Mame:Analog+ will see the trackballs separate from each other, but the optipac data will still have the trackball data merged with it's, so you can't use the trackballs with the rotaries or spinners at the same time. Again, the optipac data can be axis split for mapping them to players 1 & 2, and you should make sure the trackballs are goin to the correct players. (this is like you discribe here)
Problem with adapters is they add a little lag time, and may cause some data garbling. I haven't tried any adapter, so I can't tell you how good or bad they are at this.